Vehicle Equipment and Special Driving Situations
Equipment the law expects
Your vehicle needs working headlights and taillights, brake lights, turn signals, a horn audible from a reasonable distance, mirrors, a muffler, safety glass, working wipers, and tires with at least 2/32 inch of tread. Headlights are required from sunset to sunrise and any time visibility is impaired - including whenever your wipers are in use for rain, fog, or snow. Georgia requires you to signal continuously for at least the last 100 feet before a turn. Private vehicles may not display red or blue lights.
Railroad crossings
Slow down, look both ways, and listen. If a train is approaching, stop between 15 and 50 feet from the nearest rail - never stop on the tracks. If your vehicle stalls on a crossing, get everyone out and move away from the tracks, heading in the direction the train is coming from so you are not struck by debris.
Other special situations
- School buses: stop at least 10 feet away when red lights flash.
- Emergency vehicles: pull to the right and stop until they pass.
- Mountains: downshift and use engine braking rather than riding the brake pedal.
- Bridges and overpasses: they freeze before the road surface does.
- Tire blowout: grip the wheel with both hands, ease off the gas, avoid hard braking, and coast off the roadway.
- Water on the road: if you cannot see the bottom, do not drive through it.
Traps
Questions love to offer "parking lights only" at dusk (insufficient), "high beams in fog" (wrong), and "pump the brakes with ABS" (wrong).
Rule of thumb: if your wipers are on, your headlights should be on.